DApps

BNB Chain issues list of 191 high-risk, untrustworthy DApps and fake tokens

BNB Chain’s proactive alert does not represent the risk level of the underlying DApp project. Instead, it is aimed at helping users in their research before making investment decisions.

BNB Chain, the blockchain developed by crypto exchange Binance, updated its red alarm list to include 191 high-risk projects and decentralized applications (DApps) currently hosted on the blockchain.

BNB Chain’s red alarm list — updated every Friday — includes projects and DApps deemed risky investments purely based on smart contract assessment. The 191 new projects on BNB Chain that have been added to the list are either suspected of issuing fake tokens, high or opaque tax fees or simply because their websites or Twitter handles don’t work.

A snippet of the risky projects on BNB Chain. Source: dappbay.bnbchain.org

The above screenshot shows a portal wherein users can scan any BNB Chain projects for risks. Out of the lot, three projects — CycGo, Piston token and Shorter Finance — were flagged after being suspected of being funded by assets originating from Tornado.

BNB Chain smart contract-based risk scanner. Source: dappbay.bnbchain.org

“Make sure to review our weekly Red Alarm list to familiarize yourself with suspicious actors on our network,” read BNB Chain’s announcement on the matter. It is important to note that BNB Chain’s proactive alert is not investment advice and does not represent the risk level of the underlying DApp projects. Instead, it is aimed at helping users in their research before making investment decisions.

Related: 73.3% of Q1 rug pulls happened on BNB Chain: Immunefi

On April 10, BNB Chain began testing BNB Greenfield, an in-house attempt to deliver decentralized storage solutions.

As Cointelegraph reported, BNB Greenfield allows users to create wallets and manage data, while developers can exercise control over data assets.

Magazine: Crypto audits and bug bounties are broken: Here’s how to fix them

3 key Ethereum price metrics cast doubt on the strength of ETH’s recent rally

ETH’s price is showing strength, but network and derivatives data suggest that ETH will struggle to hold the $1,850 price level.

Ether’s (ETH) price had been battling the $1,850 resistance level, but it broke through on April 4 when Ether rallied to a seven-month high above $1,900. Recently there has been a lot of speculation on Ether price catalysts. Let’s see if it’s possible to identify any fundamental factors behind the price movement. 

The upcoming Shanghai hard fork could be one factor in Ether’s recent bullish momentum. On April 12, the ability for validators to withdraw their deposits opens, giving staking participants freedom of movement but also creating a sell-off risk for Ether.

There are now 17.81 million ETH staked on the Beacon Chain, though some safeguards have been put in place to prevent a flood of Ether from disrupting the market. For example, because there is a daily limit of 2,200 withdrawals, the maximum daily unlocks are 70,000 ETH.

Scalability and selfish validator risks are still present

The upcoming Shanghai fork, however, does not address some of the most pressing issues currently plaguing the Ethereum network. Scalability continues to be a major issue for most users, as the average transaction fee has hovered around $5 in recent weeks, driving users away from decentralized applications (DApps).

Furthermore, the current consensus mechanism favors rogue miners who outperform other network participants, a phenomenon known as miner extractable value (MEV). They can quickly duplicate all winning deals from the mempool and execute their transactions ahead of others by ultimately deciding which transactions are completed in the block.

A recent example, highlighted on April 3 by security firm CertiK, resulted in $25 million in losses to arbitrage bots that were attempting to purchase and flip tokens in a short period of time for a profit as a selfish validator replaced the transactions.

Over the last 30 days, the top 10 DApps running on the Ethereum network saw an 18% drop in active addresses, possibly reflecting investor dissatisfaction with the ongoing issues with miners front-running and high transaction costs.

30-day Dapp activity. Source: DappRadar

Let’s look at Ether derivatives data to understand if the $1,850 level can effectively become a support according to ETH investors’ sentiment.

ETH derivatives show no improvement despite the price rally

The annualized three-month futures premium should trade between 5% and 10% in healthy markets to cover costs and associated risks. However, when the contract trades at a discount (backwardation) versus traditional spot markets, it shows a lack of confidence from traders and is deemed a bearish indicator.

Ether 3-month futures annualized premium. Source: Laevitas.ch

Despite ETH’s 35% rally in 25 days, the Ether futures premium has been unable to break above the 5% neutral threshold. However, the absence of leverage longs demand does not always imply an expectation of negative price action. As a result, traders should examine Ether’s options markets to understand how whales and market makers price the likelihood of future price movements.

The 25% delta skew is a telling sign when market makers and arbitrage desks are overcharging for upside or downside protection. For instance, in bear markets, options investors give higher odds for a price dump, causing the skew indicator to rise above 8%. On the other hand, bullish markets tend to drive the skew metric below -8%, meaning bearish put options are in less demand.

Related: Ethereum projects unite to protect users from MEV-induced high prices

Ether 60-day options 25% delta skew: Source: Laevitas.ch

Since April 1, the delta skew has been close to zero, indicating a similar demand for protective put options and neutral-to-bearish call instruments. Since March 22, when Ether options last showed extreme optimism, this has been the norm.

Even after adjusting for the additional negative pressure from the Shanghai hard fork token unlock, Ether faces serious problems due to scalability and transaction front-runs. As a result, derivatives and on-chain DApp metrics increase the likelihood of ETH falling below $1,850.

Magazine: ‘Account abstraction’ supercharges Ethereum wallets: Dummies guide

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Celo Foundation and Google Cloud partner to support sustainable Web3 startups

The collaboration is set to allow founders building on Celo to access credits for Google Cloud and Google’s mobile development platform, Firebase.

The Celo Foundation has partnered with Google Cloud to support mission-aligned projects in Celo’s blockchain ecosystem and advance the early adoption of Google Cloud services. The collaboration is set to allow founders building on Celo to access credits for Google Cloud and Firebase usage, thereby enhancing Celo’s mobile-first infrastructure and decentralized applications (DApps).

Firebase is a mobile and web application development platform developed by Google that provides developers with various tools and services for building apps, including authentication, real-time databases, cloud storage and messaging.

According to the announcement, the Google Cloud team will also provide mentorship and guidance to the Celo Foundation’s Founders in Residence program and participate in the virtual Celo Camp accelerator program, which supports entrepreneurs in developing sustainability-focused startups. Additionally, the two organizations aim to co-host targeted workshops and events focused on Web3 sustainability and innovation.

Xochitl Cazador, the Celo Foundation’s head of ecosystem growth, told Cointelegraph that “this new, expanded partnership between Google and the Celo Foundation enhances the ability to collaboratively create broader awareness for blockchain technology and its ability to scale real-world use cases on Celo.”

Cazador further explained that “Google Cloud’s core team will also support the Celo Foundation through joint hackathons, workshops, and events centered on the intersection of Web3 and sustainability. The partnership aims to further amplify both teams’ belief that blockchain technology is well suited to address environmental matters.”

Addressing the challenges that sustainability-focused startups in the Celo Network face, Cazador shared that “highly technical onboarding processes, complex interfaces, and unfamiliar transaction fee currencies present major barriers to entry for such startups in the Web3 space.”  However, Cazador shared that Celo’s partnership with Google Cloud is set to “alleviate the strain on emerging and established projects, thereby allowing ecosystem builders to tackle today and tomorrow’s largest sustainability challenges.”

Related: Celo ecosystem projects raise $77.3M in support of interoperability, ReFi

Celo is a blockchain platform that has achieved carbon negativity through proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. Within the Web3 community, it has gained recognition as a leader in regenerative finance (ReFi), a broad concept that prioritizes sustainability within finance. The platform has a diverse range of over 1,000 projects in more than 150 countries.

In episode 10 of Cointelegraph’s Hashing It Out podcast, Rene Reinsberg, the president of Celo Foundation and the co-founder of the Celo blockchain, discussed the ReFi movement and Celo’s plans to stay relevant in the multichain world. Reinsberg shared that he sees the increase in layer-1 blockchains and layer-2 networks as an opportunity to bring more people into crypto. 

‘CryptoGPT’ Twitter accounts spring up as hashtag trends on Twitter

Dozens of Twitter accounts have emerged on the social media platform claiming to be related to “CryptoGPT.”

A Twitter hashtag relating to a purported artificial intelligence crypto token called “CryptoGPT” has been trending on Twitter.

Alongside it, a number of very similar-looking Twitter accounts have also sprung up — some of which have been touting likely fake giveaways.

As of the time of writing, “Download CryptoGPT” was trending, with 6,185 tweets associated with it. GPT-4 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4), an unreleased neural network created by OpenAI, was also trending with 4,683 tweets.

Trending topics on Twitter. Source: Twitter

Meanwhile, dozens of Twitter accounts sporting the name “CryptoGPT” can also be found on Twitter, with some offering likely fake giveaways or airdrops

Many of these accounts describe the purported project as allowing users to use blockchain to monetize their data with AI. The system is based on Ethereum and scales with a zero-knowledge rollup layer-2 network.

The project purportedly aims to attract decentralized application developers to build on its blockchain. CrypoGPT will offer its GPT tokens as payment for anonymous user data generated from the usage of these DApps.

Contrary to what its name may suggest, however, the project doesn’t appear to be directly related to the ChatGPT AI chatbot that has taken the internet by storm in recent months.

A snippet of Twitter accounts with names relating to “CryptoGPT” Source: Twitter

The crypto token also appears to have backing from certain crypto exchanges, at least from a listing perspective.

On March 8, Bitfinex announced it would list CryptoGPT’s native GPT token two days later, describing it as a project that aims to offer users an opportunity to earn crypto for sharing their anonymized data. Other exchanges that will reportedly list the GPT token include PancakeSwap, ByBit, Gate, MEXC and Bitget, among others.

Related: ChatGPT learns Bitcoin will end central banking and fiat currency

Earlier this year, blockchain analytics firm PeckShield warned its followers about dozens of alleged “pump & dump” tokens purporting to be related to ChatGPT and Bing AI.

A pump-and-dump scheme typically involves the creators orchestrating a campaign of misleading statements and hype to persuade investors into purchasing tokens, then secretly selling their stake in the scheme when prices go up. 

Near Protocol releases blockchain operating system for Web3

Cointelegraph interviewed the protocol team at ETHDenver 2023 about the new operating system and funds raised to help Ukrainians last year.

The decentralized application (DApp) Near Protocol is releasing a new blockchain operating system, focusing on improving user experience on Web3 through a common layer for browsing and discovering open web resources, the company disclosed at the Web3 and innovation festival ETHDenver 2023.

In an interview with Cointelegraph’s Turner Wright during the event, Near co-founder Illia Polosukhin spoke on how the ecosystem is moving closer to user’s needs and the release of the Blockchain Operating System (BOS).

According to the Near team, the system works with any blockchain or Web2 backend, allowing users to have the experience of using a single app, even when switching between applications or chains. For developers, the solutions promise to deliver decentralized and composable frontends, enabling the fork of pieces and components and built-ins such as payments, profiles, and notifications without any hosting involved.

Polosukhin noted about the blockchain operating system: 

“The iOS provides developers a place to show their app in front of billions of users, and it gives them all the services and the infrastructure underneath to build, so you kind of just plug in here. That’s what we’re trying to do, trying to kind of give the distribution here, give the platform underneath and let developers build.”

The protocol, which is a competitor of Ethereum offering smart contract capable and a proof-of-stake blockchain, sought a 10x growth on key metrics last year, including number of transactions, active monthly wallets, projects onboarded, developers and money invested within the ecosystem, claimed the co-founder. 

Related: Smart contracts to power day-to-day Web3 company operations

“A lot of projects just migrated over to Near,” noted Polosukhin about last year’s growth, combined with an effort to search for existing applications with a user base:

“They came to us, some of them because they saw you can write in JavaScript smart contracts. That’s like three times cheaper to hire developers. This is just more usable not just for users, but for developers as well.”

Unchain Fund

Polosukhin is also one of the developers behind the Unchain Fund, a fundraising effort created last year to help Ukrainians affected by the war. As of early 2023, the fund had raised over $9 million in donations, almost entirely in crypto assets.

According to him, the raised funds were crucial to support the people of Ukraine in the first weeks of war, while international help was still underway at a lower pace:

“The Red Cross, UNICEF, they take months to spin up all of their systems when something happens, that’s just that’s how they are. They’re slow […] but when they get there, they have the procedure, and they set it up, they build the supply chain, logistics, and then they can start delivering. So, in a way, crypto funds covered in the beginning, like spin-up time for a similar government aid.”

Part of the raised funds were used for a program dedicated to women with children who run away from home, providing weekly payments of 25 euros to roughly 6,000 Ukrainian women. The funds were also used to purchase ambulances through the global initiative United24. 

GameFi analytics help blockchain gamers sift through crypto games

How and where to get analytics on the emerging projects in the GameFi space.

From the massive fall of Bitcoin’s (BTC) price to the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, 2022 was full of upheaval for the blockchain industry. But the blockchain community has always been resilient, finding new ways to develop in the most challenging times.

A striking example of optimism and growth is the development of the GameFi industry, which combines gaming, decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse.

In 2021, GameFi became a growth leader in the crypto space, with successful projects like Gala Games, Decentraland, The Sandbox and Axie Infinity.

The GameFi sector has continued to develop, attracting more and more investment. In 2022, the volume of venture investments in Web3 games and the metaverse amounted to $7.6 billion. Some analysts predict a valuation of $2.8 billion for the GameFi sector by 2028.

However, a sudden influx of investors in this growing sector has also resulted in many low-quality games suffering from poor in-game economics, as well as monotonous and underdeveloped gameplay.

How can a gamer looking for a good project find the right one? Cointelegraph has found several GameFi analytics resources to help potential gamers weigh the pros and cons of each platform.

DappRadar 

DappRadar is one of the most popular decentralized application (DApp) analytics services. Founded in 2018, it provides statistics on DeFi, GameFi and NFTs. The platform has data for over 2,000 NFT games.

Pros

One of the most popular features of DappRadar is located in the “rankings” tab, which allows users to rank several DApps related to GameFi, DeFi projects, gambling, exchanges, NFT collections, marketplaces, social networks and different blockchains. DApps are ranked according to criteria such as the number of unique active wallets (UAW), number of transactions, transaction volume and the total balance of funds in the smart contract.

Screenshot of ranking tab

The page of an individual project contains its rating, tags and links to social networks, as well as its description. In the middle of the page, standard indicators (UAW, number of transactions, volume, balance) are displayed in addition to a graph of changes for different periods. 

General statistics on DApps can be obtained in the “Industry Overview” tab after selecting the period, category and protocol. DappRadar also periodically publishes analytical notes, which are located in the “Reports” and “Blog” sections.

Recent: Could NFTs and crypto help Japan’s ‘Cool Japan’ strategy?

There are two additional options for NFTs. First is the NFT Explorer, in which users can sort not only the general list of collections, but also the NFTs of an individual collection and even a general gallery of NFTs from different collections. The page for an individual NFT shows its name, owner, minimum price, last sale price, blockchain, NFT metadata and trading history. A second option is the NFT Value Estimator, which displays the expected price of an NFT based on current and past price performance.

Screenshot of NFT explorer

For game developers, DappRadar has a “Developers” section where game founders can promote a new product through advertising campaigns and other marketing techniques.

Cons

The wealth of information provided for each project could prove difficult to navigate for newcomers who may only want basic information about a project.

Another disadvantage of the platform is that, for a long time, the selection of NFT games was limited to those on the Ethereum blockchain, while projects on other blockchains were not taken into account.

The situation improved this year when the site increased the number of monitored blockchains from three to 48. Considerable funds have also been allocated for the development of new technical solutions.

Dapp.com

Dapp.com is the world’s largest DApp distribution platform. Dapp.com lists over 8,000 DApps built on more than 20 blockchains like Ethereum, EOS, TRON, Steem, TomoChain, IOST, Stacks and others. The platform showcases DApps based on data analytics, community feedback and user comments. 

Pros

The platform has a built-in wallet called DappStoreWallet so that users can easily access and use DApps associated with various blockchains.

The ecosystem of the project is powered by Dapp Token (DAPPT). Token holders are able to participate in voting on the platform, launch projects on the platform through staking, and more.

The platform has a “Market Report” section where users can view quarterly reports in various areas, including games.

The advantages of the platform include a simple interface and navigation, where users can view game ratings according to various criteria — for example, by increasing or decreasing prices for tokens, by user reviews, or by level of risk.

Screenshot of game ratings

Users of the platform can not only see the ratings of NFT projects themselves, but also read general news about NFT projects. 

Cons

For an inexperienced user, it is almost impossible to find the quarterly analytical reports section. The link to the page with reports is at the very bottom of the page and represented by small text.

At the same time, the reports themselves clearly stalled for a couple of years, with the most recent appearing for Q2 of 2020. At the same time, the quality and depth of analytics is almost on par with that of DappRadar.

The project listings are not informative and contain only a brief description of the project in a couple of sentences without the current price of the token or the number of active users. Such information must be viewed in the overall rating of projects, which is inconvenient. The majority of the page for each project is occupied by user comments, which are very important, but it seems that Dapp.com is primarily aimed at creating a community and not at providing analytics.

CryptoSlam

CryptoSlam is an NFT market data aggregator. The platform can be used to analyze trading volumes in the NFT market, identify the most popular collections of digital assets, and track release dates for new tokens.

The CryptoSlam team has included various information about the projects on the pages of the collections and the individual NFTs themselves. The project description has a section on online sales statistics, which the system updates as owners change. The platform can also be used to collect data on NFTs of interest.

Pros

The main feature of the platform is its real-time data showing movement in the NFT industry. Featured data includes the volume of sales of NFT tokens, the number of token holders, on which blockchain an NFT resides, and the number of holders.

It is convenient that users can sort NFT projects in several tables on one web page by various parameters like sales volume within a particular game, or by the price of tokens.

Table of NFT projects by sales

One unique feature of the platform is its live sales section, where one can see which user sold an NFT token and at what price, including from which address and to which address. This parameter is constantly updated automatically.

This platform is a very convenient service for the continuous tracking of the work of an NFT project, within which real transactions can be traced.

Another plus of the platform is that it is developing. In January 2023, the Forkast.News company and CryptoSlam teamed up to create the Forkast Labs project. The product could offer users a new media analytics platform for the digital economy. According to the team, the decision to create Forkast Labs was made due to the lack of a standard methodology for determining the true value of digital assets, which is mainly measured by current prices for cryptocurrencies. The timing of the launch of the project is still unknown.

Cons

One con is that the platform doesn’t have any analytical reports. The service only allows for the monitoring of NFT projects, albeit in real time, but does not evaluate activities for a particular period. Perhaps this defect will be corrected after the launch of the Forkast Labs project.

Another downside is the inability to separate NFT projects by indstury — gaming, gambling or finance, for example. If the user wants to see only NFT gaming projects and allocate them to a separate slot or table, then they will not be able to do this since the service does not have such a function.

Just like Dapp.com, this platform contains a lack of detailed information about projects, such as creators, at what stage of development the project is, news about collaborations, etc.

Conclusion

The main reason for using NFT analytics tools is to help limit the amount of fraud in the major marketplaces. Investing in NFTs can be time consuming, somewhat risky and nearly impossible unless users spend hours on social media platforms and NFT trading platforms looking through the myriad NFTs available.

As can be seen from the description of the most popular analytics platforms, there is no perfect one that contains all relevant information in one place, but such projects are critical for crypto enthusiasts.

Recent: Is the SEC’s action against BUSD more about Binance than stablecoins?

Sebastien Borget, president of the Blockchain Game Alliance, told Cointelegraph that he believes that analytics platforms should pay more attention not only to numbers, but to players and users:

“NFT games analytics platforms should expand beyond just the on-chain transaction data to reflect what’s happening in a game or how popular it actually it, and work on broadening to all the activities games have to offer to players — to show that games are first and foremost fun entertainment products where people spend time, and transactions are not the only gameplay in them.”

How Fantom and Optimism’s DeFi and DApp development directly affects FTM and OP price action

Despite similar price action, Fantom and Optimism ecosystems are moving in opposite directions and this is reflected in each token’s price.

The price action of Optimism (OP) and Fantom (FTM) tokens have been quite identical since the last quarter of 2022. The difference is that volatility is slightly higher for OP, which surged 240% year-to-date, compared to the 180% gains seen in FTM.

The Fantom Foundation has made several improvements since Q4 2022, which have catalyzed an uptrend in the token’s price. However, Fantom’s ecosystem remains primitive while its competitors expanded to support new use cases.

On the other hand, Optimism has shown robust community and decentralized application (DApp) development thanks to the loyalty of Ethereum developers and the Optimism Foundation’s effective strategy in aligning token incentives with governance.

OP/USD (orange) and FTM/USD (blue) price chart. Source: TradingView

Fantom’s ecosystem development stalls

The Fantom ecosystem received an adverse blow in early 2022 due to the departure of leading DeFi architect Andre Cronje. The blockchain’s ecosystem development stalled after Cronje’s departure. At the same time, Fantom’s competitors, like Polygon (MATIC), Cosmos (ATOM), Arbitrum and Optimism, continued to host various popular applications.

Cronje rejoined Fantom development efforts in November, however, it appears it was too late by then. The lack of sustainable yields in a bear market has restricted liquidity inflows to Fantom.

Fantom TVL over time. Source: DefiLlama

The Fantom community also aimed to improve the quality of decentralized applications on the blockchain through an ecosystem development fund built by reducing the portion of burnt fees from 20% to 5% in December. While the number of smart contracts created on Fantom has spiked significantly since Q3 2022, the quality of DApps still needs to improve compared to its competitors.

Number of smart contracts created on Fantom. Source: Dune

The 30-day activity billboard from Nansen shows that top dApp activity on Fantom was limited to simple swaps, which is discouraging as other activities like derivatives trading, social media platforms and NFT trading are prospering on competing chains like Arbitrum, Polygon, and Optimism.

The most used DApps on Fantom between Jan. 20 and Feb. 20 was XEN Crypto, a free mint Ponzi scheme-like application. The application first appeared on Ethereum in October, with a lot of excitement in the first few days of launch. However, the hype subsided after the mint became unprofitable as many users crowded the platform.

Top Fantom dApps by usage in the last 30 days. Source: Nansen

Optimism developers find success with new use cases

At the same time, Optimism has successfully attracted liquidity and activity to its ecosystem after launching the Optimism token and accompanying airdrop campaigns. In April, the Optimism team stated there would be a “season of airdrops” and launched an Optimism Quest campaign.

The layer-2 network saw increased usage from users for collecting its nonfungible tokens, which would likely make them eligible for the airdrop. The Quests ended in January, following which there was a steep decline in activity. However, DeFi liquidity remained sticky.

The total liquidity on Optimism. Source: DefiLlama

Moreover, the activity on Optimism is quite diverse. The list of most used decentralized applications on Optimism includes yield platform Pool Together, derivatives platforms Synthetix and Perpetual Protocol and leading lending platform Aave.

Optimism also hosts a decentralized blogging platform, Mirror, which allows content writers to issue their articles as NFTs. The platform has gained significant usage, with 2.7 million hits on its website.

Top Optimism dApps by usage in the last 30 days. Source: Nansen

On Feb. 24, the largest U.S. exchange, Coinbase, announced its layer-2 blockchain, which uses the same technological design as Optimism. The announcement added that the exchange is closely working with the Optimism Collective with a vision to connect blockchains built on the same technological stack, collectively known as the Optimism ecosystem. This could possibly be the beginning of a big step for Optimism where other businesses follow Coinbase into joining and enhancing Optimism’s liquidity and activity.

Comparing the tokenomics of FTM and OP

One drawback of the Optimism token is that it is only a governance token and doesn’t entitle users to real yields in gas fees. The OP tokens’ supply will inflate at 2% per year, along with investor and team unlocks that begin in April.

However, the Optimism team has incentivized participation in governance, which improves the protocol’s governance and also aligns incentives with its intended use, i.e., higher voter participation.

Optimism’s governance has proved more efficient than competitors like Uniswap (UNI) and Compound (COMP) in promoting decentralization. The layer-2 network’s ecosystem is also expanding by supporting diverse applications. Optimism also stands to benefit from Arbitrum’s native token launch, which will likely add fuel to the layer-2 token narrative, pushing the OP token’s price higher.

Related: Vitalik shows support for Optimism’s governance structure and OP gas proposal

For Fantom, despite implementing a burn feature in its protocol, the real yield of the platform is still negative, around -0.93%. The blockchain’s fees and liquidity must improve considerably to enhance the value of FTM. Otherwise, it risks becoming irrelevant alongside many other layer-1 protocols in the market.

Technically, FTM can see more upside while it holds support above $0.38 and target the $0.95 support and resistance area. A breakdown below $0.38 could see it dropping toward $0.19.

FTM/USD weekly chart. Source: TradingView

For OP, its price surged above its previous peak of $2.30, which will now act as a support for further upside as it experiences a price discovery. On the flipside, a breakdown below this level could see the token’s price drop toward $1.30.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Coinbase launches its own layer-2 network for building decentralized apps

The network, known as Base, is designed to be a low-cost, secure, developer-friendly environment that Coinbase said will serve as a bridge to bring users into the crypto economy.

On Feb 23, crypto exchange Coinbase announced the launch of Base — an Ethereum layer-2 network. The company claimed that this new network will offer a low-cost, secure, developer-friendly environment for building decentralized apps (DApps) on the blockchain.

According to Coinbase, Base is designed to be a bridge for users into the crypto economy, offering access to other L1 ecosystems like Solana and making it interoperable with other chains. It will also provide access to Coinbase’s products, users and tools as well as easy fiat on-ramps and powerful acquisition tools. The company said it has no plans to issue a new network token.

Base will be built on the “OP Stack” used by Optimism. It will start off highly centralized, though Coinbase has released a detailed plan regarding how the network will decentralize over time.

In its announcement, Coinbase said that Base will be “fully open source and freely available.” The company said it is joining the OP Stack core dev team to “ensure it’s a public good available to everyone.”

According to the announcement, Coinbase will continue to integrate as an exchange with other networks, and Base itself will be “a bridge, not an island.” Coinbase intends Base to be an easy-to-use network for its customers to get familiar with using crypto, but it will encourage users to “start on Base, but go everywhere.”

In its decentralization plan, Coinbase said that it is working with Op Labs and the Optimism Collective to decentralize the Optimism ecosystem by creating a “Superchain” of connecting networks built on the OP Stack. The company judges that the current version of Optimism is a “Stage 0 rollup,” citing Vitalik Buterin’s post on the decentralization of rollups. By the end of 2023, Coinbase said it plans to have progressed Base to “Stage 1.”

ConsenSys eyes Web3 notification service refinement with Hal acquisition

The acquisition will allow ConsenSys’ Web3 API provider Infura to integrate Hal’s configurable webhooks or notification service in its developer stack.

Blockchain technology services provider ConsenSys acquired Hal, a no-code blockchain development tooling platform, to disrupt alerts and notifications at the protocol level in Web3.

The acquisition will allow ConsenSys’ Web3 API provider Infura to integrate Hal’s configurable webhooks or notification service in its developer stack. As a result, the move will help developers create alerts and notifications at the protocol level for various signals.

According to ConsenSys, Infura offers a suite of tools to connect apps, which the developer community can use to connect apps to the Ethereum network and other decentralized platforms.

A workflow showing how Infura facilitates access to Web3. Source: ConsenSys

Infura co-founder Eleazar Galano revealed the company intends to fill the gaps in the building process of apps for the crypto ecosystem. Speaking about ConsenSys’ acquisition of Hal, Galano stated: 

“Enabling developers a seamless end-to-end experience is a key goal and one of the most important trends is low code / no code solutions.”

In February 2022, ConsenSys acquired Ethereum wallet interface provider MyCrypto to improve the security of MetaMask and its user experience. 

ConsenSys acquired Hal to build upon this year-old initiative and enable MetaMask to offer a dynamic, personalized notification system.

Related: ConsenSys founder ‘bullish’ on Ethereum following crypto winter performance

ConsenSys CEO Joe Lubin recently told Cointelegraph that “we’ve retained virtually all of our capabilities” despite having to lay off 11% of its workforce.

Lubin highlighted concerns around raising cash in the crypto ecosystem at the Web3 builder-focused event, Building Blocks 23, in Tel Aviv, Israel. He added:

“And VCs are not kind and generous. They’re going to withhold until some sort of shakeout happens in the tech space, I believe.”

Regarding the job cuts, Lubin believes ConsenSys is now in a stronger position to withstand unforeseen global economic troubles.

Gamers made up nearly half of all blockchain activity in January: DappRadar Report

A new report from DappRadar revealed that during the first month of 2023, blockchain gaming made up 48% of all DApp activity.

Play-to-earn blockchain gaming experienced a downturn over the last year as gamers prioritized improving the gameplay experience. 

However, according to a new report from DappRadar, in the first month of 2023, gamers made up nearly half (48%) of all blockchain activity.

January also saw the market caps for top gaming tokens increase by 122% on average, with Gala (GALA), the digital utility token of the Gala Games ecosystem, surging by 218%.

According to the report, the rise in interest in these gaming tokens comes as industry buzz hits mainstream audiences. For example, Gala Games made headlines after it acquired a new mobile gaming studio with more than $20 million in assets under management and 15 games.

Blockchain analyst at DappRadar, Sara Gherghelas, told Cointelegraph that based on on-chain metrics from the past two years, it’s safe to assume blockchain gaming will continue to be a significant sector in the industry.

“This is because blockchain gaming is already a vertical in the traditional industry. As blockchain gains more traction, it will bring more adoption to Web3 games which will become mainstream.”

The Wax blockchain continues to have the most active gaming activity, with 331,000 unique active wallets. The top three blockchain gaming ecosystems all saw an increase in gaming protocols from the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023, except for the BNB Chain.

Source: DappRadar 

The beginning of 2023 saw increased activity as strong funding set the stage for what many call blockchain gaming’s “buidling” year. This term encapsulates the industry’s focus on building more powerful, high quality games.

Gherghelas said the amount of investments toward this vertical is “increasing significantly,” with overall investment in 2022 around $7.6 billion — a 105% increase from 2021. Investments into the blockchain gaming industry topped $156 million in January alone.

Related: Ushering in a new era of Web3 gaming by making Play-to-Earn sustainable

Additionally, the report highlighted the metaverse’s role in the uptick in blockchain gaming activity this year. The data revealed that the trading volume for January in virtual world-related games hit $44.5 million, a 114% increase from the month prior.

Although sales decreased by 19%, the overall growth can be attributed to the success of major metaverse platforms such as The Sandbox and Decentraland, with an increase in trading volume of 114% and 83%, respectively.

According to at 2022 report from DappRadar, Web3 gaming accounted for nearly half of all blockchain-based transactions in the year.